"We actually changed the private sector not because they want to be nice but because there is public pressure on them and there is a public pressure on the market," Miranda said.
He pointed to companies in Germany that market their social networking services by underscoring their commitment to enhanced privacy, meaning that the security of personal information has become something that can be sold.
"Those companies changed their posture not because they don’t want to be aligned with their governments. They changed their posture because they would lose consumers," Miranda added.
The Snowden files revealed that the NSA had worked closely with Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Verizon and other major telecom and tech firms to spy on individuals and governments.
